I usually feel like I shouldn't be posting on politics if I'm not going to be posting all the time, and I don't know enough to post all the time.
But this upset me, too, so I went looking for body counts a few weeks ago. These are hard to find, since -- among other reasons -- Rumsfeld announced the U.S. was going to stop tracking Iraqi deaths early in the war. Iraq Body Count (http://www.iraqbodycount.org) claims over 10,000 Iraqis have been killed. I'm not sure this is credible, though of course that may be wishful thinking on my part. I'm having a hard time finding other sources. Human Rights Watch (http://www.humanrightswatch.org) lists 94 verified civilian deaths (http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/10/iraq102103.htm) in Baghdad between May 1 and September 30, but also says hundreds of civilian deaths (http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/12/us-iraq-press.htm) due to land mines were preventable, and says "more than a thousand people" were "killed or wounded." These are body counts for very specific times or causes, and I think much lower than the totals.
From looking at various sources, I get 3-5,000 Iraqi "soldiers" (not sure how this is being defined) and 2-3,000 civilians. But that could be far too low.
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Wed, Apr. 7th, 2004 07:16 pm (UTC)But this upset me, too, so I went looking for body counts a few weeks ago. These are hard to find, since -- among other reasons -- Rumsfeld announced the U.S. was going to stop tracking Iraqi deaths early in the war. Iraq Body Count (http://www.iraqbodycount.org) claims over 10,000 Iraqis have been killed. I'm not sure this is credible, though of course that may be wishful thinking on my part. I'm having a hard time finding other sources. Human Rights Watch (http://www.humanrightswatch.org) lists 94 verified civilian deaths (http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/10/iraq102103.htm) in Baghdad between May 1 and September 30, but also says hundreds of civilian deaths (http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/12/us-iraq-press.htm) due to land mines were preventable, and says "more than a thousand people" were "killed or wounded." These are body counts for very specific times or causes, and I think much lower than the totals.
From looking at various sources, I get 3-5,000 Iraqi "soldiers" (not sure how this is being defined) and 2-3,000 civilians. But that could be far too low.